Tolkien gesture - but a precious one: U.S. as Golum the puppeteer (Giant puppet alert)

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | March 11 2003

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Greenpeace activists carry a giant puppet of Australian Prime Minister John Howard
as it dangles from the fingers of a giant Gollum, a character in the Lord Of The
Rings: The Twin Towers film. Photo: Reuters

Greenpeace members hung a giant puppet of the visiting Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, from a Wellington cinema yesterday in protest against his support for war on Iraq.

The puppet was dangled from the fingers of a giant Gollum, a character in Lord Of The Rings: The Twin Towers, that sits on top of the building.

"John Howard ... has sent troops to the Middle East in support of what would be an illegal and unprecedented strike against Iraq," Greenpeace said in a statement. "He has shown himself to be nothing more than a puppet of the US Government."

Elsewhere, protesters thumped drums, whistled and chanted "no blood for oil" outside Parliament as Mr Howard attended a lunch inside. However the rowdy whistling and chanting from about 600 anti-war protesters was inaudible in the Banquet Hall, where Mr Howard was being hosted by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Mr Howard was shadowed by police marksmen as he laid a wreath at the nation's war memorial in Wellington earlier in the day.

Just 15 anti-war protesters were at the memorial for Mr Howard's visit, but in a sign of the concerns about his security a large number of police were also on duty.

NZPA

[RAT Patrol]

Okay, give 'em a point for creativity. But the analogy really doesn't work, and it's very dishonest.

[Miss Marple]

The Marple rule of demonstrations:

The obnoxiousness and cluelessness of the protest is directly proportional to the number of giant puppets observed.

[ecurbh]

I am at work now and don't have the ping list available. Bumping for later reference.

[2Jedismom]

Ping!

[dead]

It is very nicely done. I wish I had the mindless time, daddy's money, and paper mache skills necessary to make puppets like that.

I'd make some real funny Hillary-bashing ones. And a Barbra Streisand one, if I could figure out a way to dumb-down newspapers and flour.

[Cyber Liberty]

The Marple rule of demonstrations:

The obnoxiousness and cluelessness of the protest is directly proportional to the number of giant puppets observed.

Ya know, I always did have a "feeling" about the relationship between Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Bilderbergers....

;^)

[Carpet Kitten]

Nothing says "we're on the side of the righteous" like a giant puppet...

[dead]

Ya know, I always did have a "feeling" about the relationship between Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Bilderbergers....

[ecurbh]

And by far the most annoying thing about this to me is that they call it "Lord of the Rings: The Twin Towers" not once, but twice! What a bunch of maroons. Can't even get the title right.

[Sloth]

At least they did a pretty good job on Gollum, from an artistic standpoint.

[SquirrelKing]

The world's message is clear...

[vbmoneyspender]

I am disappointed. If they are going to compare the U.S. to one of the evil characters in Lord of the Rings at least compare us to one of the heavyweights like Saruman, or one of the Nine, or Sauron himself.

[Cyber Liberty]

Only seems fair to me. We are, after all, "The Great Satan".

[vbmoneyspender]

This is enough to give a Great Satan in training self-esteem problems.

[Defiant]

We are Gondor, and Bush is Aragorn. (I guess that makes Britain Rohan and Australia is the Shire. Saramun is dead or in hiding, and we are about to defeat Mordor and kill Sauron. How do they get Gollum? France is Gollum.

Silly protesters.

[Redcloak]

Agreed. It's a stupid analogy, but it's also some impressive artwork. They've nailed Smeagol's appearence. And working on a large scale like that is not easy.

[k2blader]

*LOL*

I have a very pro-US Aussie friend who's gonna enjoy seeing this one.

[HairOfTheDog]

They've nailed Smeagol's appearence.

They didn't make Smeagol, the movie people made him. That is the theater in NZ that hosted the world premier for the movie. The Greenpeace people only made the little puppet. ;~D

[Redcloak]

I stand corrected. I see now that they're responsible only for the sucky little puppet.